West Covina : Pleas Entered in BKK Case

The BKK Corp. of West Covina, a South El Monte contracting firm, and five individuals have pleaded innocent in Los Angeles Superior Court to charges that they conspired to shortchange the state Department of Transportation in the cleanup of a Lynwood dump.

Judge Judith C. Chirlin will hear pretrial motions in the case on April 25. In addition to BKK Corp. the defendants are retired BKK employees Jack Thompson and Charles Dean Virden; Andrew Papac Sr., Andrew Papac Jr. and their South El Monte firm, Papac & Sons, and a Papac business associate, William Paul Dunlap.

After a three-month preliminary hearing last year, Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge Barbara A. Meiers ordered the defendants to stand trial on several charges, including grand theft, forgery, embezzlement and conspiracy, but she said the amount involved was $46,000, not the $1 million claimed by the prosecution. The defendants are accused of overcharging Caltrans by concealing an arrangement under which Papac & Sons received a discount on dump fees for disposing of contaminated dirt from the Century Freeway project at the BKK landfill.